Player info Awards Rosters and Photos Numbers

Team info Carolina Cougars Houston Mavericks Spirits of St. Louis Standings Utah Rockies

Stats Head-to-Head

Quick facts:

Founded:   1967
Folded:    1976, but still exists in the NBA for TV Revinue purposes
Arena:     Sam Houston Coliseum (1967-69)
           Greensboro Coliseum (1969-74)
           Charlotte Coliseum (1969-74)
           Dorton Arena (1969-74)
           Reynolds Coliseum (1969-74)
           St. Louis Arena (1974-76)
           Salt Palace (proposed)
Titles:    0
Playoffs:  4

Missed the draft:
One of the craziest stories in sports is that when the Houston Mavericks arrived at the inaugural ABA draft, they were not part of it. The ownership group had forgot to send the $30,000 dollar check to secure the team. Owner TC Morrow was able to quickly come up with the funds, but the team missed the draft. He was able to recruit players from the Eastern Professional Basketball League (later known as the Continental Basketball Association) to play for his team.

Most Points in a single game:
On March 18,1972 in game vs the Memphis Pros, Cougars guard Larry Miller set a ABA record by scoring 67 points. The previous high 63 had just been set a month earlier by Utah's Zelmo Beaty, but Miller broke the record with ease.

Miller shot 25 of 40 from the filed and 17 of 23 from the line en route to the greatest individual performance in ABA history.

The Cougars beat the Pros 139-125 and Miller account for nearly half of the teams points. The next closest scorer on the Cougs was George Carter who came off the bench and added 19 points. The Pros were lead by Johnny Neumann who had 27.

Aviation Throw Back:
The Spirits of St. Louis where named after the Spirit of St. Louis, a plane which Charles Lindbergh flew solo on a transatlantic flight. The plane is also featured in the team's logo.

Relocation to Salt Lake City:
Before the end of the final ABA season the Spirits of St Louis announced that they were going to move to Salt Lake City, Utah and become the Utah Rockies. The move was done because the likelihood of an NBA-ABA merger was almost 100% and St Louis was not seen as a viable market. Where as Salt Lake City had a state of the art arena, and was secluded from other television markets. The city was small, but had proven to have a devoted fan base which would support an NBA or ABA team.

Ultimately the move failed as the NBA only took four teams. But the idea turned out to be a good one as three years later the New Orleans Jazz would move to Salt Lake City and become the Utah Jazz - one of the leagues most stable and successful franchises.

Greatest Deal in Sports History:
Rather than accepting a traditional buyout, Spirits/Rockies owners Ozzie and Daniel Silna negotiated one of the most famous business agreements in sports history.

The brothers received an upfront payment along with a share of the national television revenue earned by the four former ABA teams joining the NBA.

As NBA television contracts grew dramatically over the following decades, the value of the agreement increased into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The settlement became far more valuable than operating the franchise would likely have been.

Because of that agreement, the proposed Utah Rockies disappeared before ever playing a game.

Marvin Barnes drives past Billy Paultz

Larry Miller scoring his ABA record 67th point.

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